Decent job at Valvoline Instant Oil Change.

Glad to hear that you had a good experience. My grandson went to Valvoline a couple of weeks ago and came out with a bill for $139.00 for a oil change and power steering fluid change. They said that would help the old Ford Focus last 400,000 miles. I was kind of miffed that he spent that kind of money especially when I have a garage and have shown him how to change his own oil.

I be miffed he didn't know the words "No Thank YOU".
 
I will say it before the bashers on here...

$100.00 for an oil change!!!!!

But if they guy can afford 50 large for the SUV......
That's a bargain for a synthetic oil change. The Mercedes dealer charge about $300 for Service A which is basically an oil change and a check of a lot of items. Of course one of my cars uses 8.5 quarts and the other one is 7.5 quarts.
 
They are a professionally run, efficient and thorough organization at the one nearest my home. The only time I had an issue, they gave me one free and one half off oil change in the future. Plus, if you call Valvoline IOC headquarters number, you can get a $35 discount on synthetic changes.
 
That's a bargain for a synthetic oil change. The Mercedes dealer charge about $300 for Service A which is basically an oil change and a check of a lot of items. Of course one of my cars uses 8.5 quarts and the other one is 7.5 quarts.

That's just the Mercedes upcharge.
 
Funny thing, I went to Jiffy lube once and that was enough. Took too long, too many up sells. Also they had a huge sign in the waiting room that said "We are not responsible for stripped oil pan drain plugs".

Not even joking they had that there as the main focal point.
 
Sounds like a great set up. I love that you get to stay in the car while it's being worked on, that would never happen here, too many liability issues.
 
Have any of you had any experience with the Take 5 places? One opened near me recently and has gotten fantastic reviews. Prices/service seems reasonable/convenient.
 
"Take 5" franchises are only in 15 states a/o now.
Ark., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., Lou., Miss., Oh., Ok., SC, TN, TX, Va., Wisc.
Coupons available all over the place. Don't go without one!
 
I'm planning on taking my newly purchased Tahoe for an oil change at the local VIOC. Got a 50% off coupon for a conventional change. See how well they do. Gotta be tons better than Jiffy Lube.
 
When I worked at a tire shop we retained all the o-rings from the old oil filters. Put them in a baggie then stapled them to the work order which then wound up in a filing cabinet.

It helped spread greasy fingerprints on everything. :cool:
 
Have any of you had any experience with the Take 5 places? One opened near me recently and has gotten fantastic reviews. Prices/service seems reasonable/convenient.

A friend of mine took his Hyundai to one of those places in Wisconsin and he thinks they did an alright job. I don't know what of brand oil they use but they used a Service Champ brand oil filter which was a jobber filter good for 3000 miles. They did provide a fairly detailed report with data listed like the amount of oil drained, etc which I thought was a nice touch. $35 is what they charged for that car's oil change which included four quarts of oil.
 
I've been getting oil changed at the same Valvoline near my old home for over 15 years, never had any issues. I liked dealing with them.
 
That's awesome. That a company would do something correctly. :rolleyes: Seriously. Sadly, seriously.
 
One of the new wrench gorillas at the VIOC managed to strip the threads on my oil pan. They found out the next oil change and the manager took off driving around town to find a new bolt they could tap into the oil pan. Got me back on the road with no hassle. Kinda of mixed on how a person whose only job is to remove and tighten bolts could manage to wreck it, but they at least fixed it right away once found.

It used to be an Oil Can Henry's oil change place, which was actually staffed with people paid enough to care. I can tell with VIOC they sometimes have to hire cheaper and less skilled people.
 
One of the new wrench gorillas at the VIOC managed to strip the threads on my oil pan. They found out the next oil change and the manager took off driving around town to find a new bolt they could tap into the oil pan. Got me back on the road with no hassle. Kinda of mixed on how a person whose only job is to remove and tighten bolts could manage to wreck it, but they at least fixed it right away once found.

It used to be an Oil Can Henry's oil change place, which was actually staffed with people paid enough to care. I can tell with VIOC they sometimes have to hire cheaper and less skilled people.


There is a reason that Oil Can Henry’s got bought out by Valvoline. Maybe the profits weren’t so good?

So, pay the guy a few bucks more and suddenly he is a caring worker?
 
There is a reason that Oil Can Henry’s got bought out by Valvoline. Maybe the profits weren’t so good?

So, pay the guy a few bucks more and suddenly he is a caring worker?
OIl Can Henry's was uber popular in our area. Always a line of vehicles waiting for service. I think they were putting a real hurt on the Jiffy Lube places which are a joke. Doesn't make sense that VIOC would buy them out if they were not making money. Oil Can Henry's owner(s) made off with a fat load of cash and don't have to run a business any longer for income. It's also no mystery why it is easier to find more skilled workers when you can offer them more for the job. Oil Can Henry's had the same people working there for years and years. VIOC has a new crew of people just about every time I ever went into there. Kind of a revolving door going on, but they are still vastly superior to Jiffy Lube.
 
I feel pretty lucky as near me I have a single man shop (real tax paying and bonded shop) that used to only be oil changes, brakes, and online purchased tire mounting and balancing. Now he'll do lighter other work, but he's a single bay garage so he can't have one vehicle tie up the place for the whole day. He's in the 20s for a normal oil change using Cam2 synthetic blend, but will let you use whatever oil you bring in as well as long as it's reasonable for the application (probably wouldn't want to put in 20w50 into a new car or something like that.) Also is a flat $20 per tire to mount and balance online purchased tires. Only issue is you can't really walk in with him, everything needs to be by appointment and in some times of the year (snow tire season) it's 4-5 days to a week out.

If I was ever away or incapacitated he would be who I would want to do my mother's oil changes. I try to treat him like gold as I realize being able to get such services is a rarity now.
 
I’ve been to a Valvoline shop once and my experience was the same. Nicely run, clean. For synthetic they poured in quart bottles so you knew exactly what was going in. Paid $80 and decided I wasn’t ready to go in that direction yet, but it’s probably coming. It was a good experience.
 
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